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A DISCOURSE 



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By LEONARD BACOlSr 

PASTOR OF THE FIRST CHURCH IN NEW HAVEN. .^"^ 






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NEWi HAVEN : 

PECK, WHITE & PECK, 

PRIX TED BY J. H. BEX HAM, GLEBE BUILDIXG. 
1862. 



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CO N C I L.I ATIO N 



A DISCOURSE 



AT A SUNDAY EVENING SERVICE, 



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By LEONARD BAOOlSr, 

PASTOR OF THE FIRST CHURCH IN NEW HAVEN. 






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NEW HAVEN: 
PECK, WHITE & PECK, 

PRINTED BY J. H. BENHAM, GLEBE BUILDING. 
1862. 



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Rev. Dr. Bacon: 

Dear Sir, — 

The undersigned, having listened to your Discourse delivered last 
evening, and believing that the sentiments therein embodied are such as are enter- 
tained by every friend of our Government, and that the dissemination of them would 
be productive of much good, would respectfully request a copy for publication. 

HERVEY SANFOKD, JOSEPH DOWNS, 

T. BISHOP, JAMES WINSHIP, 

JOSEPH P. THOMPSON, PHiLEMON HOADLEF, 

S. W. S. DUTTON, MORRIS TYLER, 

A. TAPPAN, THOS. R. TROWBRIDGE, 

HENRY PECK, DAVID H. CARR, 

WYLLYS PECK, S. A. BARROWS, 

S. D. PARDEE, EDWIN MARBLE, 
GEORGE H. DURRIE. 

New Haven, Jult/ 21, 18fi2. 



Messrs. Hervcy San ford, Esq., Timothy Bishop, Esq., Joseph P. Thompson, D.D.,S. W. 
S. Button, B. B., Arthur Tappan, Esq., Hon. Henry Peck, and others : 

Gentlemen,— The discourse which you ask for is at your disposal. If, wheu 
printed, it shall have the effect of making the readers feel more deeply that we have 
no occasion to discuss the questions that have been raised about the theory of the war 
or the method of conducting it ; that the war itself, vigorously prosecuted, will iuevitablj 
carry with it the solution of those questions ; that as a nation we are under the neces- 
sity either to conquer this rebellion, or to be conquered and subjugated by it; and 
that the first duty of government and people at this crisis is to defend the Constitution 
and the Union at whatever cost, freely sacrificing wealth and life to save the country ; 
I shall uot regret that I have permitted it to go before «-he public in this form. 

Very respectfully, 

LEONAKD BACONv 

New Haven, Juli/ 28, 18G2. 



DISCOURSE. 



ISAIAH XI, 13. 
Ephraim shall not envy Judah, and Judah shall not vex Ephraim. 

There had long been a schism, or separation, among the tribes 
of Israel ; Judah and Benjamin on one side, Ephraim and the 
nine remaining tribes on the other. Piety and patriotism alike 
inspired the hope of a time when the disastrous secession, which 
had for its corner-stone the worship of the golden calf at 
Bethel, should be no more. Such a hope was warranted, im- 
plicitly by God's ancient covenant with Israel, and explicitly 
by the prophetic word which I have read. The time would 
come when Israel should be again one people — when the envy 
or hatred of Ephraim should depart, and the adversaries of 
Judah, long emboldened by the secession of the ten tribes, 
should be cut off — when Ephraim should no more envy Judah, 
and Judah should not vex Ephraim. 

Our country is now in the agony of a war which, in the 
wickedness of the conspiracy that brought it on, in the false- 
hood of the pretenses under which it was begun, in the breadth 
of the area over which it extends, in the resources by which it 
is sustained, and the energy with which those resources have 
been developed and employed on both sides, and in the gran- 
deur of the interests which it involves, has rarely been equaled 
in this world's history. Being a civil war — a war with enemies 
at home who are our own countrymen — a war with treason 
and insurrection — it is more dreadful in its nature than any 



(6) 

foreign war can be ; inasmuch as a brother offended is harder 
to be won than a strong city, and inasmuch as it tends con- 
tiinially to a desperate exasperation. 

Yet we may say that hitherto this war has not been con- 
ducted, on the part of our government, in any spirit of malig- 
nant vindicliveness ; nor has such a spirit been aroused, to any 
consideralile extent, among the loyal people of the United 
States. Among all loyal citizens, as well as on the part of our 
civil and military leaders, the feeling prevails that the war is to 
be prosecuted not for vengeance, nor for any needless destruc- 
tion, but only for the purpose of upholding against rebellion, 
and confirming forever, the best government that God ever 
gave to any people. Even strangers who have been among us, 
and who Avere not unwilling to report any truth that might be 
unfavorable to us, have taken notice of the fact that the war is 
not prosecuted on our part in a malignant spirit. We are de- 
fending the great principle of popular self-government under a 
written constitution ; and that principle we are determined to 
establish. We are defending the life of the nation — the union 
of these States in a common government with a common 
citizenship. We are defending the old flag, not in the rage of 
unreasoning passion, nor merely for the memories that gather 
around it and the historic glory that flashes from its stars, but 
because it is the symbol of that Union which was confirmed 
and perfected by the Constitution, and which guarantees to 
every State the principle of republican self-government. 
Wicked conspirators have undertaken to destroy the righteous 
and beneficent government which God has ordained in these 
United States ; and it is ours, as the servants of God, in behalf 
of our common country, and in behalf of all coming ages, 
to defend that government, at whatever cost, against the con- 
spirators and the misguided hordes whom they, by the com- 
bined power of delusion and of terror, have subjected to their 
sway. The restoration of our national government, wherever 
it has been temporarily subverted, is not the subjugation of the 
people there to a sovereign power in which they axe not to 



(7) 

participate — it is in fact their restoration to a joint self-govern- 
ment with us — the restoration of each revolted State to all its 
rights and powers as a member of the Union. 

It was to just this view of the war that our government com- 
mitted itself at the beginning by an almost unanimous vote in 
both Houses of Congress. Our national manifesto was made 
more than one year ago in these words : 

" Resolved, — That the present deplorable civil war has been 
forced upon the country by the disunionists of the Southern 
States, now in arms against the Constitutional Government, 
and in arms around the Capital : that in this national emergency 
Congress, banishing all feelings of mere passion or resentment, 
will recollect only its duty to the whole country ; that this war 
is not waged on their part in any spirit of oppression, or for any 
purpose of conquest or subjugation, or purpose of overthrowing 
or interfering with the rights or established institutions of those 
States, but to defend and maintain the supremacy of the Con- 
stitution, and to preserve the Union, with all the dignity, equal- 
ity and rights of the several States unimpaired ; and that as 
soon as these objects are accomplished the war ought to cease." 

According to this view, which is unquestionably the right 
view, our ultimate aim, while we stand in arms, and offer our 
sons and ourselves in sacrifice, must be the conciliation of 
the now revolted States. I do not say that we must conciliate 
the perjured leaders of the rebellion. I do not say that we are 
to conciliate and win over the Jefferson Davis, the Alexander 
H. Stephens, the Judah P. Benjamin, the Peter Soule, the 
Henry A. Wise, the John B. Floyd, or any of the felons, more 
or less conspicuous, who have been active and forward either 
in planning or in executing the great treason. I do not say 
that any of the men who, having been educated at the nation's 
expense, and having worn the nation's livery in the army or 
the navy, have deserted the nation in its hour of peril, and 
with a guilt like parricide have joined in the attempt against 
the nation's life, must be conciliated and coaxed to repeat the 
paths they have already broken, lyet each individual traitor 



(8) 

receive that justice which the public safety may require, or 
that mercy which the public safety may permit. What I say 
is only that this conflict cannot terminate safely otherwise than 
as the now revolted States shall be thoroughly conciliated to 
the Union. Each of those States must come to its place in the 
Union — must accept the Federal Constitution as paramount to 
any constitution, law, or ordinance of its own — not sullenly, 
but willingly, as California or Kansas came into the Union — 
willingly, as Connecticut or Ohio remains in the Union. What 
we want as the termination of this conflict is peace — not a 
hollow truce, exploding into war again, but permanent peace, 
hearty peace, a true conciliation. 

This then is our duty in the prosecution of the present war, — 
the duty of the citizen, the duty of the government. Our con- 
flict is with the enemies of our country, who have risen in 
causeless rebellion against our common government. If we 
suppress that rebellion, if we punish the traitors, if our vic- 
tories restore the Union and the Constitution wherever the re- 
bellion is now dominant, we must remember — the government 
must remember — every loyal citizen must remember — that all 
this will be of little worth, until the revolted States shall be 
thoroughly and heartily conciliated to the Union. We must 
remember also that whenever, and by whatever righteous 
method, such a conciliation can be effected, the conflict should 
immediately cease. 

The great question then — the question to be pondered by the 
highest statesmanship — the question to be earnestly considered 
by every citizen on whose heart the country's peril is a con- 
stant burden — the question that should be proposed every- 
where, and viewed in every light — is the question whether 
such a conciliation is possible, and under what conditions. 
How is the ultimate end of this war on our part to be attained ? 
Various methods of conciliation are indistinctly proposed in 
various quarters. Let us distinguish them from each other, 
and examine them in succession, that we may see whether 
there is in any of them a reasonable ground of hope, and that 



(9) 

we may avoid the errors and the mutual misunderstanding 
which are inevitable among those who will not take pains to 
know distinctly what their own thoughts are. 

T. One method of conciliation is indistinctly suggested by 
some who would probably speak out more clearly if they dared. 
Let us not be afraid to state it fairly and to look at it delibe- 
rately. I mean the method of conciliation by submission to 
the demands on which the rebellion is founded. Doubtless 
the Union might be ''reconstructed," (not restored,) if the 
loyal States would give up the old Federal Constitution, and 
adopt the Constitution which has been framed for the govern- 
ment of the Confederate States, (so called) ; if they would pull 
down everywhere the old flag and run up the stars and bars 
in place of the stars and stripes ; and if they would apply for 
admission into the confederacy that has its capitol just now at 
Richmond. Or, without going quite so far, we might win 
back the rebels by conceding to them all that they demanded 
before their secession as the indispensable condition of their 
remaining in the Union. If this method of conciliation is in- 
trinsically right, and if it will gain for us a firm and lasting 
peace, the humiliation which it involves on our part is not a 
valid reason for refusing to consider it. If submission is right 
and will secure the peace of our country forever, let us submit. 
But before we resort to this method of conciliation let us un- 
derstand distinctly what it involves. What is it that we are to 
do in the act of making our submission ? 

1. First of all, we surrender the fundamental principle of our 
national government and of our national unity and internal 
peace — the principle which makes the secession of a State, at 
its own discretion, impossible without treason. The words in 
which the Constitution of the United States defines and affirms 
this principle, and binds the States into a nation, are plain. 
" This Constitution, and the laws of the United States which 
shall be made in pursuance thereof, and all treaties made, or 
which shall be made, under the authority of the United States, 
shall be the supreme law of the land ; and the judges in every 



( 10) 

State shall be bound thereby, any tiling in the constitution or 
laws of any State to the contrary notioithstanding.'^ And then 
to make it sure that there shall be no secession without perjury 
as well as treason, the provision is added that not only Senators 
and Representatives in Congress, but " the members of the several 
State legislatures, and all executive and judicial officersi, both 
of the United States and of the several States, shall be bound 
by oath or affirmation to support this constitution." Thus the 
founders of our government, in the marvellous wisdom which 
God gave them for their work, established " a more perfect 
Union," forever indissoluble, in the place of a feeble confede- 
racy which could make no law, and whose treaties with foreign 
powers were impotent. We surrender this cardinal principle 
of our Union — we lose, irrecoverably, this bond of our national 
life — whenever we yield to an act or a threat of secession, or 
admit that there can be secession without perjury and treason. 
2. Another element in this method of conciliation is, that 
we give up the right of the people to elect a President, by a 
constitutional majority, in accordance with constitutional ar- 
rangements. You remember what it was that was seized upon 
as the pretext and occasion of rebellion, namely, the election 
of a President not acceptable to a minority of the States. There 
was no pretense that the election had deviated in any particular 
from the letter or the meaning of the Constitution. Nothing 
was pretended, save that the majority had not submitted to the 
dictation of the minority. On that occasion, the attempt was 
made to subvert the American principle of goverment by the 
free choice of a constitutional majority, and to introduce the 
Mexican principle of government by pronunciamiento and revo- 
lution. If we are to conciliate the revolted States by submit- 
ing to the demands on which the rebellion rests, we must con- 
cede to those States henceforth a right of veto on every elec- 
tion that happens to displease them ; and instead of the old 
principle of constitutional government by the votes of the ma- 
jority, we must establish the principle of unconstitutional gov- 
ernment by the will of the minority. 



(11) 

3. [f we are to obtain peace by submission, we must consent 
to nationalize slavery, I am aware that many have no objec- 
tion to this. Before the commencement of the rebellion, a 
very large portion of the people, even in those States whose 
laws abhor slavery, were quite willing that slavery, instead 
of being what it once was, the peculiar institution of certain 
States, the creature entirely of local and municipal law, 
should be recognized as a national institution ; that the law 
of slavery, and the consequent traffic in human flesh, should 
be carried by national authority into all the territories ; and 
that our national government, instead of being adminis- 
tered in the interest of universal liberty, should be admin- 
istered with a jealous care for the perpetuity and propagation 
of negro slavery. I do not now argue with such citizens, 
if any such are here. I do not reproach them. They see no 

wrong in the slavery which exists in those revolted States 

no injustice to men — nothing that contravenes the love or kin- 
dles the displeasure of God, and therefore they are quite willing 
to have that slavery become and remain forever a national in- 
stead of a local insiitution. But I beg them to remember, that 

with a great and growing multitude of their fellow-citizens 

probably with a majority of the men and women of these loyal 
States, antipathy to slavery (including the hideous trade in 
human beings) is not a prejudice merely that can be conquered 
at command, but is an earnest religious conviction, grounded 
immovably in their deepest moral instincts, and sanctioned by 
their allegiance to God, If you can persuade the people of 
these loyal States to nationalize the peculiar institutions of 
Utah, and to acknowledge Brigham Young as a prophet di- 
vinely commissioned, — if, by some political jugglery, yoiLcan 
transfer their worship from the God of the Bible to Juo-o-erhaut 
or to Moloch ; then may you in like manner bring them to 
consent that slavery, or the ownership of one human being 
by another, with all the power over body and soul which that 
ownership includes, shall be nationalized under a Constitution 
which refuses even to acknowledge the possibility of i^uch a 
thing, and which stigmatises all forms of Ufe-service as detri- 



, 12) 

mental to the public welfare, by incorporatiug among its funda- 
mental arrangements the principle tliat, for all the uses of the 
commonwealth, a person of whatever complexion who is held 
to service otherwise than for a term of years, is worth only 
three-fifths as much as a free negro, 

4. But this is not all. If we are to conciliate by concession 
and submission, we must go further and suppress the right of 
opinion and of utterance in regard to slavery. It will be of no 
avail to nationalize slavery by Congressional legislation or by ju- 
dicial edicts — to repeal the law which has emancipated the slaves 
at the seat of our national government — to open every territory 
for the import and sale of human cattle — to make New York the 
emporium and chief depot of the internal slave trade, so long as 
men in any portion of our common country are permitted to 
say from the pulpit, or through the press, or on the platform of 
popular harangue, or before any ecclesiastical synod or legisla- 
tive assembly, that the enslaving of human beings convicted of 
no crime, is a stupendous wrong. There, as we all know — in 
that liberty of thought and utterance — is the foremost of all 
the grievances on which this rebellion is founded. In these 
States, the people have abolished slavery, or have never per- 
mitted it to obtain a footing. In these States, freedom of 
thought and utterance on all public uistitutions and interests, 
and on all questions of morality or of human right and 
human duty, is deemed essential to the safety of the com- 
monwealth. Accordingly, in all these States, not a few voices 
have been uttered in condemnation of slavery. The pecu- 
liar institution of the slave-holding States has been discussed 
in its moral aspect, as plainly contrary to luiiversal prin- 
ciples of justice, — in its social bearings, as adverse to all the 
progress of true civilization, — in its political influence, as es- 
sentially hostile to popular self-government, — and in its eco- 
nomical relations as inevitably wasteful and unthrifty. Doubt- 
less these discussions have not been in all respects what they 
should have been. Doubtless their value has been greatly 
impaired by the admixture of bad logic, bad rhetoric, and bad 
temper. Doubtless the enthusiasm of zeal for justice and of 



( 13) 

pity for the oppressed has too often degenerated into fanaticism. 
But all these things are only the unavoidable incidents of that 
freedom to think and to speak, to Avrite and to print, which is 
the safeguard of all other liberty. We know the inconven- 
iences of free speech and a free press — there are many to whom 
a free pulpit is almost intolerable ; but we tolerate these in- 
conveniences because the liberty of which they are the disa- 
greeable incidents is invaluable. Yet if we are to take up this 
method of conciliation — conciliation by submission, we must 
suppress all freedom of thought and speech. Law, and lynch- 
law — the magistrate, and the vigilance committee outrunning 
the slowness of the magistrate — the jail, and, more effective 
than any legal penalty, the ignominy of tar and feathers, the 
cruel scourge inflicted by sentence of the mob, the ready rope 
and nearest tree — nuist guard the institution of slavery, here 
as well as in the slaveholding States, against every word of 
reprobation, or even of inquiry. Nothing less will serve the 
purpose, if this is to be the method of conciliation. 

It is plain then that conciliation on the plan of conceding the 
demands of the rebellion, is an impossibility. Even if it were 
possible to cajole or coerce the majority of the loyal people into 
such concessions, what would come of it ? Peace, think you ? 
No ! nothing less than a perpetual storm of agitation. Think 
you that what you call " Abolitionism," would be suppressed 
by such a compact ? Are you so ignorant as not to know that 
though the martyrdoms for protestation against slavery should 
be more numerous than the martyrdoms for Protestantism in 
the reign of Mary, or the martyrdoms for Christianity in the 
reign of Domitian, a host of living witnesses would spring from 
the ashes of every martyr ; and " fanaticism," as you call it, 
would become tenfold more fanatical, and tenfold more con- 
tagious, under the heat of persecution ? 

II. Turning now from this impracticable method of con- 
ciliation, we encounter the proposal to conciliate those revolted 
States by consenting to their attempted separation from the 
Union. It cannot be doubted that there are many who would 



( 14) 

be willing to conciliate in this way. This is what our philan- 
thropic advisers on the other side of the ocean, who dread the 
growing power of our republic and its influence for the re- 
jiublican cause in Europe, are urging upon us. At first sight 
it seems a hopeful method. We are told that thus we may rid 
our nation of the incumbrance and disgrace of slavery. We are 
told that even after such a separation, the imperial extent and 
resources of our country would be the envy of the world. 
We are told that after a few years of peace, the dissevered 
union may begin to be restored. We are told that, at least, we 
shall stay the effusion of blood — shall disband our armies — shall 
save this lavish expenditure which is loading us and our pos- 
terity with an incalculable public debt. There is much per- 
suasion in these thoughts ; but let us think deliberately what 
is implied in such a division of the Union. 

1. This method proposes that there shall be, henceforth, two 
nations in what is now one country. Think how those two 
nations will be related to each other. No natural barrier will 
hold them apart. Here an invisible parallel of latitude, there a 
river, there the height of land between two streams, will con- 
stitute the boundary. On the two sides of such a boundary, 
there will be two nations of kindred blood, with one language, 
with similar forms of government, at least for the present, but 
with systems of policy, at home and abroad, irreconcilably 
opposite. On one side of the line every thing is subordinated 
to the institution of slavery ; and the chief end of the national 
policy, at home and abroad, is to guard, to strengthen, and to 
propagate that barbarous institution. On the other side, all are 
free ; and society is jealous and sensitive for the liberty of the 
humblest individual. On one side is the slave-market, where 
men, women and children are purchased of all comers, and no 
impertinent questions asked about where the merchandise came 
from. On the other side are free negroes — in all a quarter of a 
million, and perhaps three times as many — men, women, and 
little children, whose price, in a not distant market, will pay 
for the risk of stealing them. What will be the result ? Is 



( 15) 

there any body here too ignorant to answer ? Can we live 
with a nation of kidnappers, separated from us only by that 
boundary line ? 

2. And where shall that boundary line be drawn ? — and how ? 
Look on the map and see. Shall it cross the Mississippi, and 
sever the upper waters of that " father of waters " from the 
lower? Think you that the people of the great north-western 
States, whose streams, descending from the Rocky Moun- 
tains on the west, and from the AUeghanies on the east, dis- 
charge themselves through that great continental artery into 
the gulf of Mexico, will ever permit a flag not theirs to wave 
over the fortresses that guard its entrance into the sea ? That 
majestic river is the natural highway on which the wealth of 
their prairies, their forests, and their mines, goes forth to mingle 
with the commerce of the world ; and never will they consent 
that any other sovereignty than that of the United States shall 
hold the key that can shut the gate of their access to the ocean ? 
By the force of a geographical necessity impressed upon the 
continent by its Creator, the Mississippi, from its head-springs 
in the region of perpetual snows, to its estuary in the climate 
of perpetual flowers, is an indissoluble bond of union to 
all the States along its course. Where then, and how, shall 
the boundary line be drawn between the United States of 
liberty, and the proposed Confederate States of slavery ? Look 
on the map again. Trace the long mountain ranges that break 
the surface of the States now held by this rebellion. This side 
of the Mississippi, those ranges, proceeding from the north, 
stretch through the conterminous regions of Virginia and Ken- 
tucky, and of North Carolina and Tennessee, and only in Georgia 
and Alabama do they slope down toward the Southern gulf. 
On their rugged flanks are the homes of a hardy race of whom 
thousands are now in arms for the Union, and thousands more 
wait only for the opportunity and the summons. Such regions, 
in whatever land, are the natural retreats and fastnesses of liberty; 
and shall the dwellers in these mountains be given over to be 
ruled in the interest of slavery ? How shall a boundary line 



( 1(3) 

be drawn across, or through, the Alleghanies, populous on all 
their slopes, and in all their valleys, with a free and laborious 
yeomanry, one in speech and lineage ? A congress of sovereign 
monarchs may revise and reconstruct the map of Europe at 
their discretion — may separate provinces that have grown to- 
gether for ages — may partition nationalities, giving one part to 
this jurisdiction, and another to that ; but who shall do that sort 
of thing in America ? 

3. But, supposing this difficulty to be surmounted, how shall 
the commerce and intercourse between two such nations be ad- 
justed. All along that boundary, wherever it may be marked 
upon the map, there must be, on either side, a cordon of inland 
custom-houses and of military posts. On every highway from 
one country into the other, there must stand at that line an in- 
spector and collector of customs. Along that line there must 
be large standing armies, confronting each other, and always 
ready for collision. What will be the result ? How long will 
such a peace continue ? 

4. There is yet a greater difficulty attendant on this method 
of conciliating the rebellion. No separation of the rebel States 
from the loyal, or of the slave States from the free — no separa- 
tion of the South from the North by whatever boundary, can 
be agreed upon without a compact for the surrender of fugitive 
slaves. Then we must have, as we have now, a fugitive slave 
law. Do you say it is impossible to have such a law or such 
a compact ? So I think ; but till there is such a compact there 
can be no peace. Without such a compact, the great interest 
for v/hich the rebellion was made, and which is to be the cor- 
ner-stone of the new confederacy, will have gained nothing by 
the dissolution of the Union, and will have lost all its old se- 
curity. Do you say that even if such a compact should be 
made, no fugitive-slave law can be executed ? I will not deny 
that I am of the same opinion ; but let me ask you to think 
what the result will be if there is such a compact and the gov- 
ernment cannot or will not carry it into effect. Doubtless 
there are those who think not only that such a compact would 



(17') 

be quite reasonable in a treaty with the revoUed States ; but 
also that every fugitive black man ought to be surrendered, 
without question or delay, to any white man that may take 
the trouble to pursue him. But who is there, among us, so 
destitute of common sense as not to know that henceforward 
a compact with a foreign power for the extradition of fugitives 
from oppression, even if by any possibility it could bo made, 
can never be carried into effect among the people of these 
States, otherwise than by mere force, suppressing and crushing 
the sense of justice in thoughtful and generous souls? 

Surely then the thought of conciliating those revolted States 
and living in friendship with them, by consenting to a separa- 
tion, must be given up. We cannot live with such neighbors 
as they would be in that case. 

III. There remains one other method, and only one. The 
rebellion must be subdued. The Constitution of the United 
States must be established as the supreme law of the land — the 
constitutional laws and government of the United States must 
be established, (I was going to say re-established, but the word 
is inappropriate,) wherever the rebellion is now dominant. God 
calls us to this duty, and we must do it, or be recreant to Him. 
It is an arduous duty — no nation was ever called to a work 
more arduous, but we cannot escape from it. Every day is 
showing to us, more and more, how great the work is, and 
how much it will cost us ; but there is no escaping from it — 
God has shut us up to it, and we must do or die. We have 
already had some experience of the sacrifices which it involves ; 
and our experience of sacrifice and of sorrow must be yet greater 
ere the work is finished. 

When will it be finished ? When shall there be, from the 
Aroostook to the Rio Grande, and from the Rock of the Pilgrims 
to the Golden Gate, one imperial nation, with one Federal Con- 
stitution, and one destiny? I will tell you when. 

Our work of conflict will be finished, when God's purpose 
shall have been wrought out. He who cannot see God in the 
calamities which have come upon us, is an atheist. He who 



( 18) 

is not compelled to recognize, in the conflict now pending, God's 
providence over the world, may read all history and find no 
God in it. If there is in this world's history a plan and provi- 
dence of God — if there is any progress of events toward a uni- 
versal reigu of justice — if the world, under God's government, 
is to grow better as it grows older — then this great crisis in our 
national history has not come but in the development of God's 
plan, nor will it pass till He shall have wrought out his own 
design. 

Our work of conflict will be finished when God shall have 
sufficiently purified us in the furnace of this great calamity. 
He is cleansing us with his own baptism of fire, and till the 
cleansing is accomplished, how can this conflict end ? He is 
teaching us great lessons of public spirit, of self-sacrifice, of 
loyalty to principle and to the powers ordained of God, of con- 
tempt for the mean trade which knaves call politics, and of im- 
partial reverence for the rights with which the Creator has in- 
vested every human soul. Not till we shall have learned those 
lessons of true manliness will God's purpose be wrought out in 
its bearing on our welfare. 

Our work of conflict will be finished when God shall have 
wrought the destruction of slavery. I do not say that an act 
of Congress, or a proclamation from the President, can abolish 
slavery throughout the regions occupied by the rebellion. 
There is no need of raising any doubtful disputation on that 
question. In the providence of God it has come to pass that 
we are waging war — desperate war — for our Constitution, for 
our Union, for the principle of popular self-government by free 
election, for our national existence ; and whatever may be the 
purpose of our government in regard to slavery, whatever the 
purpose of this or that commanding general, whatever the pur- 
pose of one party or another among the people, however un- 
wavering our determination to prosecute the war for no other 
purpose than that which was announced in our national mani- 
festo, it is becoming every day more palpably manifest that in 
this war God has a purpose in regard to slavery, and that his 



( 19 ) 

purpose is marching to its consummation. The President may 
have his scruples about the Constitution. Congress may doubt 
how far the legislative power of the nation may be extended at 
this crisis. The people may dispute and be divided in opinion 
between theories of indefeasible State-riglits and theories of 
State-suicide. But God is not compelled to work under our 
Federal Constitution. He is above our Constitution ; and 
while we hesitate and know not what to do, the historic forces 
that are working out His purposes, will not be hindered by our 
scruples. The work to which we are shut up — the awful duty 
from which we cannot escape, is war, and nothing less. We 
are at war with a desperate and powerful enemy. Every hour 
the conflict grows more desperate. Just in proportion as the 
people, and the government, and the military commanders, 
awake to comprehend the fact that what we have on hand is 
not a riot to be quelled, but war in its direst reality, the strange 
delusion that we are nevertheless, and at all hazards, to be the 
faithful allies of our deadly and desperate enemies against 
their slaves, will lose its power. When that delusion is gone 
from us, our enemies will know it, and their slaves will know 
it. I do not say that there will be a servile insurrection in 
our favor. I do not say that Congress will enact, or the Presi- 
dent proclaim an '' abolishment " of slavery. It is enough 
that civil war will have its natural course. The millions of 
slaves now an inert machinery employed against us by our ene- 
mies, win become a power — will choose for themselves which 
side to serve ; and that choice, whether it be to serve the re- 
bellion or to serve the Union, will be in effect the assertion of 
their liberty. Already thousands of slaves, in spite of all our 
scruples, have been emancipated by our armies ; and as the 
war works out the natural results of a protracted civil war, 
each party putting forth its utmost strength, tens of thousands 
more will gain their freedom on one side or the other. How 
is it possible for slavery to outlive such a war ? The rebellion 
itself, in the rage and despair of its utmost agony, will be 



(20) 

compelled to emancipate its slaves, and to proclaim the end of 
slavery. 

Then it will be seen that there was no other method of con- 
ciliation. Nothing but the conquest of this rebellion can give 
us peace, and that conquest will give us peace only because — 
though we may entertain no purpose of doing anything else 
than to establish the Constitution as it is, and to restore the 
Union as it was — though we may proclaim in the utmost sin- 
cerity our intention to leave every institution of the revolted 
States just where the rebellion found it — the destruction of 
slavery, being an inevitable incident of such a war, will make 
us — what otherwise we can never be — one people. It was 
by the worship of the golden calves at Dan and Bethel, that 
the secession of Ephraim from Judah was made permanent. 
The seceded tribes were apostate from the ancient faith of 
Israel, the sundered nation could never be reunited till that de- 
basing worship was abolished. So now it is the apostasy of our 
seceded States from the old national faith in liberty — their re- 
pudiation of the most elementary principles in the idea of 
right or justice — their insane worship of that foul African idol, 
African slavery — that makes it impossible for them to be in 
union with us as one people, or to be at peace with us as 
neighbors. Between liberty and slavery, whether in one na- 
tion, or in neighboring nations separated by no natural barrier 
to intercourse, the conflict is irreconcilable and irrepressible. 
But let slavery perish — as it cannot but perish in the progress 
and consummation of a protracted civil war — and the M^hole 
world shall see that, among the English-speaking States of this 
broad continent, from the tropic to the arctic circle, liberty and 
union are one and inseparable. 

One duty then is plain, — to stand for our whole country 
against rebellion and disunion, — to stand for the Constitution 
against anarchy, — to be of good cheer in disapointment or disas- 
ter, — to count no personal interest of ours too precious when 
God calls for sacrifice, — and to do or die in the assurance that, 
through the struggles and the sorrows of so dire a conflict, God 
is working out his own benignant purpose. 



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